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Whitewall & Wallport #1(Artifact 4) Also known by many other names, including the Solar Train, the Golden Locomotive, and simply the Queen's Train, this most unique artifact was designed and constructed in the early-middle First Age by Queen Tenrae of the city that would become known as Whitewall. Tenrae knew instinctively that Skyships, while grand and plentiful, would never really be accessible for the average mortal man, who might be privileged to ride upon one once in his life if he were lucky. The reason of course was because Skyships, even ones which could be constructed without the use of magic at all (which Tenrae would, later in life, pioneer anyway,) are very complicated things, with relatively little carriage capacity. She had an idea for a road – a road upon which men trod not, but which carriages and coaches would convey men and goods en masse, a mechanism by which even the poorest of mortal men could find affordable travel across long distances, and by which even the richest of the Princes of the Earth could find a luxurious and relaxing means of travel. Naturally, her fellows thought she was absolutely crazy with her idea, and like all good Twilights (and most really bad Twilights, too), she set out to prove them wrong. To do this, she had first to devise a mechanism by which sufficient power could be unleashed by only mortal hands, without involving magic or thaumaturgy in any way, shape, or form, in order to make it as robust, cheap (and hence, affordable,) as possible. This conundrum was solved when she saw a child in a street playing with a toy – a brass sphere filled partly with water, with tubes extending across it horizontally. When heated, the water became steam, which whistled out of the tubes, creating a sound that struck into Tenrae's soul, resonating with the ingenious Twilight Shard within her, and giving her the idea – that fire is energetic, and when used to boil water, can be used to make objects move without invoking magic! It didn't take very long for Tenrae to have a number of concept engines built, tested, designs refined. Eventually, she had the ideas ready. All she needed now was vindication! Of course, this necessitated an Artifact version, and what better way than to convey the Northern-dwelling Solars to Meru in style? She founded the first operating, commercial railroad between the cities of Ondar Shambal and the shipping port that would come to be known as Wallport. Trying to think of a name that was at once grand, and not aggrandizing herself, she named it after the beautiful white wall surrounding Ondar Shambal, and renamed the shipping port to Whiteport to alliterate with it; hence, she founded the Whitewall & Wallport Rail-Road. (Long after the wars had ravaged Creation and the deeds of the Solars were forgotten, it was from the name of this railroad that Whitewall's current name would be taken, as the massive rail depot on the edges of Whitewall had a huge brass and iron plaque above it proudly proclaiming “Welcome to Whitewall,” which originally meant only the depot and it's station. As the city expanded, eventually consuming the depot inside it's walls, the depot would still be the first thing travelers along the holy road into town would see, with it's plaque. Since this laid inside the eponymous walls, and not up against them, they would simply refer to the city as Whitewall.) By acquiring the services of the demon Jacint, the Prince Upon the Tower, 18th Soul of Adjoran, Tenrae had an enormous bridge constructed from Wallport to a city (now lost to Creation) upon the shores of the Blessed Isle, and from there the Prince's road extended all the way to Meru. The best was yet to come. The assembled Solars of the North were called to assembly to travel to Meru. Though they expected to be led to some grand new Airship she had constructed, they were quite surprised to find a behemoth constructed of Oricalcum and iron and all the flavors of Jade awaiting them upon a set of rails. They laughed – they scoffed! How could such a thing's wheels (which were smooth) even hope to make it move; they would simply spin on the tracks, and there was no rail to take them anywhere! That was the genius of it. In just over a day, the journey to Meru – almost two thousand miles – would be complete, and they would be transported there in glorious style. Everyone would be arriving in a Skyship, but who would arrive in such a beast which has the audacity to reshape the very land before it? Not many believed her machine would work at all, while others thought it a fools' errand. Still, to them she said, stay behind if they wish. Though many thought it provincial at best, they boarded; for the opportunity to harass Tenrae for her boondoggle when it failed spectacularly, if nothing else, only to find, amazingly, it expanded as they boarded, producing a car (which expanded the whole train in a magnificent choreography of moving metal parts) for each of the Celestial Exalted who boarded with intent to ride, and the support cars that those who had brought entourages would need. Indeed, it seemed magnificent – no-one had a Skyship which could expand itself to suit the needs and wants of those who rode in it. Inside, they found the cars larger than they appeared from the outside, and they instinctively suited themselves to the aesthetics and desires of the Exalt who boarded them – while one from the north-west might find his car's décor to suit his tastes, with warm fires and a massive Polar Bear's skin rug, one who hailed from the lands of Halta would find that, though interior, the décor perfectly matched that of her carefully-constructed Wood-aspected Manse, high in the most mighty tree in Halta. They were suitably impressed with being conveyed in the style of their choice – doubly so when they realized that the cars they had been provided with would reshape their interior at his or her whim – what was a bedroom could become a dining room simply by stepping outside, willing it to be so, and stepping back in. And then, with a slight lurch, they felt the train of carriages begin to move – rushing to the front, they found Tenrae herself, laughing – rushing along the walkways on the side of the massive locomotive, they found a magitech device had deployed itself in front of the strange metal plow in front, and was producing and setting steel rails as they rolled along the Holy Road. Suitably delighted, the delegation happily traveled in style. Imagine the surprise on the faces of those who were already in Meru, when they heard a piercing, yet haunting whistle echoing through the foothills of Mount Meru, and watched in bizarre wonderment as the leviathan rolled up to their city along the road that Queen Tenrae had caused to be installed, generating a metal track as it went. Needless to say, the idea caught on for a while as a fad amongst Solars who did not prefer to travel by air, and could not or would not travel by water. Tenrae would make many (lesser) trains for her fellows, and the technology would spread far and wide in Creation, being tinkered upon, modified by, innovated upon for many centuries. That's another story, however. Whitewall & Wallport #1 is, to the very core, a magical artifact, a pioneer. Tenrae had built it not simply as a self-indulgent novel conveyance for herself, but to kick off a revolution in the way men and goods were transported. While tracks could (and ultimately, would) be laid by mortal hands and other forms of labor, W&W #1 would spearhead the effort with it's automatic track-layers and maintainers. It provided all the comforts of home to the Celestial Exalted who would choose to ride in it – indeed, it was not mere conveyance, but while traveling, Tenrae often used it as a palace-away-from-home, as well as a workshop-away-from-workshop. Speed: 59/120 Traveling upon perfectly maintained track and powered by Hearthstones, W&W #1 can make headways at speeds of up to 120 miles per hour while pulling an effectively unlimited consist. When powered by fuel and water, the Queen's Engine may travel at up to 90 miles per hour with a consist of up to ten cars, losing five miles per hour for each car afterwards. (Dependant upon the weight of the cars – a fully-laden cargo car would count as two other car.) W&W #1 requires Hearthstones to operate to full effectiveness. Ideally these Hearthstones should be Fire or Solar aspected, but other Hearthstones may of course be substituted. Hearthstones are installed in the locomotive's cab. It functions effectively magically with them, but may (in a pinch) be used ordinarily – by filling the boiler with water and igniting a fire in the firebox. A Hearthstone of Fire/Solar 2+ (or other Hearthstone 3+) is required to power it's movement. It is never stymied by gage or other track oddities, adapting itself perfectly as necessary. There was a time when electrified track of electrified overheads were common in Creation, and W&W #1 could naturally draw power from them as an alternative to both fuel or Hearthstones, and if necessary, it can adjust to cog track for pulling up steep inclines. Maneuverability: -3S(4) :As a locomotive and train consist, maneuverability is mostly limited to accelerating and braking. When forging new track, the train may be 'steered' by the engineer, but this is ungainly at best. Dodging is exceedingly difficult in such a vehicle. Nevertheless, as it is an Artifact train, Dodge is possible, albiet difficult. Much stunting will be required. Endurance: N/A to 200 hours. When powered by a Hearthstone and attuned by a character, W&W #1 has effectively unlimited endurance. A first-age artifact designed by one of the unrivaled geniuses of the Solar Exalted, it channels essence to perform it's own maintenance. When attuned by a character but not powered by a Hearthstone, W&W #1 still performs it's own maintenance, but lacks the magic nessessary for locomotion. It requires fire in the firebox and water in the boiler (unless somehow travelling along a stretch of track which is electrified in one way or another) or some other form of adequate fuel (W&W #1 can be modified to use most any imaginable fuel or power source within a day.) Generally, this will be coal or wood, and water, stored in the massive tender. This tender can hold water and coal for 24 hours of continuous operation at maximum coal speed (90 MPH), or 60 hours of continous operation at half coal speed (45 MPH). Wood has the same speed as coal, but half the endurance (12 hours at 90MPH, or 30 hours at 45.) Lower speeds than this do not gain greater fuel economy. If for some reason unattuned and without Hearthstone, W&W #1 must use fuel to operate itself, and requires exceptional maintenance by skilled engineers and/or thaumaturges every 200 hours it spends under steam. It can be restored to full function in lieu of physical/thaumaturgical maintenance by being attuned by an Exalt, having a Hearthstone installed, or both, and letting it perform it's own maintenance over ten hours. Otherwise, maintenance takes 400 man-hours of work by skilled personel possessing ratings of 3 or higher in Lore, and either Craft (Fire) or Occult, and capable of reading Old Realm. Fortunately, even if requiring maintenance, it has no repair cost, as the maintenance takes the form primarily of disassembling, cleaning, and reassembling the locomotive, checking and cleaning the cars and connectors. Maintenance is not possible without a railroad shed with cranes and the like, or a significant force of very large, superhumanly strong creatures to do the lifting. :Operating in arrears of maintenance risks a breakdown. Every hour under full steam incurs a cumulative 15% chance of a breakdown, every hour under half steam incurs a cumulative 5% chance. Operating at minimum speed (5 MPH or less) will not risk breakdown, and checks for breakdown from hours already accumulated are not made while operating at minimum speed. Crew: 2 or 3/1 (2) Strictly speaking, the Queen's Train needs only one crewman, the engineer in the cab. It helps to have a knowledgeable conductor in the train's Caboose, monitoring the larger displays and watching out the rear, however, and operation is not as efficient without him. When operating with fuel instead of a Hearthstone, the Queen's Train requires three personel - engineer, conductor, and fireman to manage the fuel. Even if operating magically, however, it helps to have a Fireman in the cab, as an assistant. Further crew can be added as well - obviously, stewards, servants and the like if transporting passengers, drovers and shepherds if managing livestock, cargo handlers if traveling with cargo, all can be accomodated readily with the appropriate cars. However, the addition of skilled brakemen meeting the Queen's Train's skill requirement can improve the Maneuverability rating of the train, by +3 if there is a brakeman for every car, +2 if carrying a brakeman for every two cars, or +1 if carrying a brakeman for every three or more cars. A Hearthstone allows full, perfect control over the brakes, acting as though W&W #1 had a full compliment of Brakemen (one per car). Cargo: Ah-hahahahahaaah! If trains excell at anything more than moving people en masse, it is moving cargo en masse. Animal cars can transport animals, box-cars and flatbed cars can transport dry goods, tank cars can transport liquids and gasses, hoppers can transport bulk material. In the First Age there were cars which only held massive shipping containers that would be offloaded from trains onto ships, or onto smaller prime movers to be taken to their final destination. Cargo on a train is primarily a function of volume, not mass. Generally speaking, the largest exterior dimensions a train car for use on most track may have are 100x16x30, or thereabouts, length, width, and height. This gives a total potential volume of 48,000 cubic feet, assuming a perfect box with infinitely thin walls. Assuming no magic is involved, most cars (after deducting the space required for the trucks, connections, and equipment to manage the cargo, such as valves and pipes for gas/liquid, dumping chutes and the like for hoppers, and so forth and so on,) and the fact that most cars on the rails today will not be two floors tall, or 100 feet long, gives a cargo volume of around 24,000 cubic feet - per cargo car. :With Hearthstone power, the Queen's Train can effectively pull an arbitrarily large number of cars, cargo or passenger. Under fuel power, it can pull up to ten cars at full steam; heavy cargo cars (of which the Tender counts as one) count for two cars, passenger and other cars count as one. Cars over 10 reduce the maximum speed by five miles an hour per, to the minimum. Additional locomotives can add their pulling power to the train, but the whole train will be limited by the maximum speed of the slowest locomotive in the consist. Armor: 45L/40B Health Levels: Ux40/Mx25/Cx25/Ix20/D Other Notes Tracklayer W&W #1 has a tracklayer system which forges steel track and perfectly installs it in the ground ahead, reshaping the land if necessary. When operating over a perfectly prepared road (such as those made by Jacint,) this may take place at a speed of up to 80 miles per hour. Lesser roads (roughly paved roads and dirt roads) allow tracklaying to take place at up to 40 miles per hour, unprepared but generally good terrain (grasslands, flat, dry, sandless desert,) may be laid ahead of the Queen's Train at up to 30 miles per hour; in bad terrain (rolling hills, unprepared steep inclines,) headway is made at 10. Truly monstrous terrain – such as forging through a forest, mountain, urban area, or other such strange terrains, allow progress to be made at five miles per hour. The tracklayer requires that the Hearthstone in the locomotive either be a Fire/Solar 3 Hearthstone, or any other Hearthstone 4, to function. In all cases, the area around and in the wake of the Golden Locomotive are left beautifully-made. Woods are cut through as cleanly as possible, with no mass deforestation, only a track through the wood, trees displaced harmlessly to the sides. Mountains have beautiful tunnels carved through them, which elegant tunnel entrances, and interiors which do not leak nor are anything but perfectly structurally sound. Terrain is smoothed to a gentle grade, as flat as possible. The tracks are anchored deep into the earth with deep pylons and cross-ties of stone; in all ways, the resultant track is Perfect, although nonmagical, and needs maintenance. In no case whatsoever will any person or creature be harmed unless the engineer deliberately invokes a Ram attack upon them. (In which case, ouch.) The Tracklayer function can also perform maintenance duties upon track which needs it (this will be indicated in the cab of the Golden Locomotive.) This cuts the speed that the Golden Locomotive could ride upon those rails to 80 miles per hour, unless the track is truly awfully maintained, which lowers it to 40. Track which is outright damaged or destroyed (such as a track with a snakehead, or which has been sabotaged almost to nonexistence) is reduced to 30. Controls The engineer's cab itself is a thing of beauty – broad, deep and comfortable, if on the warm side. Among physical dials and gages and controls are Magitech screens which give read-outs on the train's status, and those which employ a divination through the track for fifty miles of the locomotive in either direction. This read-out allows those in the cab to see any other objects on any stretch of rail which connects to the one it is now on for fifty miles, as well as showing all stops and settlements and major landmarks adjacent to, on, or crossing the track. This display is powerful – it labels such objects correctly (barring counter-magic which blocks such divinations, which forces a roll-off against the attuned character's Essence score or W&W #1's Artifact rating, whichever is higher, with a +3 bonus) and gives their states (stopped, moving, out of control, etcetera, for objects on the tracks, bustling, quiet, faded, uninhabited, etcetera, for settlements and stops.) The Caboose has the same sort of read-outs as the cabin, but with much greater detail. The engineer's cab has all the data about the train and surounding tracks (and to a limited extent, surrounding lands.) The caboose's read-outs are much more detailed, giving virtually any manner of information the conductor or engineer could ask for about the train or it's surroundings - a beautifully-detailed map of the area with all the divination information available to the train, information on the passengers and cargo, climate inside and outside the train, and so forth and so on, as well as having sleeping quarters for the train's crew and functioning as a longue for those who wish to see the view behind them. W&W #1 has, without any extra cars, the following cars; the locomotive itself, a tender for fuel and water, the Workshop Car, Owner's Car (which is a Private Coach for the attuned person, and is generated without further cost to them), a Caboose. When the train is powered magically and stopped, it can re-arrange it's order and the heading of any cars by telling it to do so in the cab – massive mechanical arms will re-arrange the train, disconnecting cars, picking up the required components, turning them if necessary, and moving them to where they need to be. (Naturally, its' cars may also be shuffled the mundane way, on switches and turnstiles and loops.) If (for some reason) the locomotive becomes separated from any or all of it's other main cars, an Exalt attuned to it may cause it to generate the required cars for an essence cost of 10 motes apiece; a process which takes a minute. Otherwise, it will generate such necessary cars once per day. (Disconnected cars instantly fall into crumbling disrepair when they are replaced, their magical materials becoming mundane material which fades to rusted metal, and they soon are good for nothing but scrap iron.) Couplings The couplings on Whitewall & Wallport no. 1 are made of a moonsilver/iron alloy. They can reshape to meet any fitting imaginable, from the original knuckle-coupling design that Tenrae pioneered originally, to the simple chain-and-hooks being used by the most primitive trains today. Passenger Accomodations Passengers who board W&W #1 while it is fully-powered and attuned are automatically accommodated appropriately to who they are; even the lowest mortal men will be provided with a magnificent coach car, seating up to 140 in up to two levels, with plush benches which may be situated to face any direction desired and comfortable climate, tables which may be pulled from the floor, and headrests and pillows to lay weary heads upon, blankets above for sleeping in. It progresses upwards until one reaches the obvious conclusion of the Celestial Exalted, who (for a mote commitment of 1) receive a car all to themselves, which suit their needs perfectly. The attuned Exalt may reshape the car at his will, to the extent it is possible within the confines of train car which may be at most 100 feet long, 16 feet wide, and 30 feet tall; these exterior dimensions are doubled for interior space. These spaces, fueled by the magic of any attuning Exalt, are quite comfortable living quarters; as opulent or as spartan as the owner desires. By expanding the commitment to five motes, these can become working spaces as well – providing an ideal working space and ideal tools for any minor endeavor, from training a skill, the mundane Crafts; penning a calligraphic letter, providing a favorable social atmosphere, and so forth and so on. When an Exalt is attuned to a private coach, they Own it inasmuch as most affects are concerned; even towards the person attuned to the train itself. It is only Owned by the person attuned to the train (and consequently, who Owns the Golden Locomotive) as regards affects which target the entire train or the coach as part of the train. Workshop Car The Workshop Car goes above and beyond the mere workshop spaces that an Exalt may perform in his personal car. This car is a full-fledged manufacturing car, capable of being re-configured to manufacture virtually anything – indeed, at it's prime in the First Age, it was even used to construct a Royal Warstrider! It is especially special because it can manufacture things larger than itself while the train is stopped, and manufacturing objects in sections to be later joined flawlessly. While it provides no bonuses to any crafting rolls, it also eliminates any and all penalties, and can process raw resources, even acquiring them if given time stopped next to a source (such as wood in a forest, metal in a mountain, and so forth and so on.) It requires a skilled operator, however; such an operator must possess at least three ranks of Lore and the Craft skill they wish to use, and know Old Realm. It can manufacture mundane objects quite quickly, and it was explicitly designed to manufacture additional cars for W&W #1 with great speed. No mundane crafting except extreme projects (such as building a fortified wall or a structure) will take more than a day, and it doubles the effective speed an operator spends working within it, to a maximum of two hours' additional work for every real hour worked. It can accommodate multiple projects which require relatively small space and share a great synergy in the support structures needed – for example, one Crafter making an artifact Daiklaive and another building an Essence Cannon. Both will need at the least the facilities to process the magical materials, and Magitech tools common to both projects may be available. Vastly different projects (such as someone attempting to use Craft (Genesis) to make a new animal, while another attempts to craft a Celestial Battle Armor, on the other hand, would get in each other's way and induce slowdowns while the car reconfigured itself to present the vastly different tools required, imposing an external penalty of up to -3 for large projects (Celestial Battle Armor and an animal) with no overlap. As a bonus, the Workshop Car is perfectly equipped to hoist objects with it's many monstrous mechanical armatures, being capable of being used as a crane with an effectively limitless draw weight and limitless cable, and of being able to salvage (or scrap) other rail cars. Lastly, the Workshop Car may enfold any of the permanent cars (the locomotive, the tender, the caboose, or itself,) and in the course of one day, radically alter their layout and aesthetics, provided the function is not changed. (For example, the locomotive could change radically in style and aesthetic, even placing the actual control cab in a different location, such as making it a front-cab design.) Owner The whole train requires an attunement cost of six motes - though a massive engine (literally,) it is very well designed, and draws most of the essence it needs from the ambient environment, needing only a 'kick' to focus the essence it uses into a critical mass. The six most cost is not optional, but includes a personal car for the owner of the train and an additional car for any attendant retinue she may have above and beyond the train's crew. This may be expanded for a cost of four motes to create a Perfect space for any activities the owner needs, as the car of any Exalt's who's invested in W&W #1 may be expanded. Category:Lai Tam